Bulldog mauls BT over 'disappointing' BB unbundling

All's fair in LLU and war

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Bulldog has jumped on criticisms made by the Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator (OTA) on Friday which highlighted yet more problems with local loop unbundling (LLU) in the UK.

The Cable & Wireless (C&W)-owned ISP has been dogged by it own problems culminating in the regulator launching an investigation into Bulldog after receiving hundreds of complaints.

Bulldog - which provides unbundled services - has blamed part of its woes on BT.

On Friday, the OTA said it was "disappointed" with the progress that's been made in opening up BT's network to competition adding that operational problems reported over the last couple of months "continue to persist and are giving me significant cause for concern".

"Current poor performance is being caused by a combination of automation instability, poor software problem handling, volume growth and resource shortfalls. This has led to an overall deterioration in the quality of delivery," said the OTA.

Responding to the downbeat assessment Bulldog said the OTA's report "endorses the ISP's experiences in recent months".

"We share the Adjudicator's disappointment at the continued instability of BT's automated provisioning system, which diverted resources into managing the inadequacies of the system and impaired the quality of service we have been able to offer our customers.

"It is now urgent that work is intensified on a fit for purpose and reliable Name and Address Database. In our view this is already overdue and every possible means should be employed to complete this ahead of the December 2005 deadline.

"Bulldog customers and potential customers expected this system to be up and running by May 2005. Five months on we expect to see a greater degree of progress than has been evident to date and a greater sense of urgency," it said.

Hitting back, BT said its systems were "under strain due to the massive growth in orders" which has led to a backlog. The UK's dominant fixed-line telco also reckons Bulldog's complaint relates to a "previous formal dispute that Bulldog lodged against BT around address matching". ®